Dance of the Knights
by Ken Giovanni
Summary: Ryoshi Morino is a high school student from Texas who was sent to Japan to finish his education after the untimely death of his father during his service in the U.S. Army. One day, Ryoshi has a run in with members of the Otogi Bank, an organization which provides aid to the students of Otogibana High. Using his skills as a marksman, Ryoshi aids the bank in its endeavors.


_**A/N: My Name is Ken Aurborum Giovanni and this story is my first jab at an Okami-san fic! This is Chapter of a multi-chapter story and along with a new story is a new goal! This story will have a regular update schedule of every 2 weeks at the latest (unless I specify that there will be a late upload). I've never been very good with keeping up on updates but it's never too late change one's ways! Anywhoo, enjoy and tell me what you think about it! In the words of Frankieonpcin1080p: "I'll see you in the next chapter!"**_

_**P.S. I am open to questions so ask away! **_

**Okami-san and the Soldier of Fortune**

"Hey asshole! Get back here!"

It was a peculiar sight to behold. There it was, unfolding right in front of him, a rather petite brunette chasing what appears to be some sort of delinquent. They were heading down a street running perpendicular to a series of apartment buildings with small balconies. Naturally one of the residents would come out to check what all the commotion. Luckily that one resident was no other than socially awkward, introverted, and anxiety prone Ryoshi Morina. Ryoshi, at the moment, was busying himself with the weekly cleaning of his prized airsoft rifle (a bolt action short barrel rifle modeled after a Remington 700). To say it was his pride and joy would be an understatement. Nearly $500 USD in upgraded parts, several thousand rounds shot, and a little over a year to perfect the build. It was, in his eyes, an engineering marvel and his most prized possession.

He quickly reattached upper receiver of his R700 SBR to the stock and looked down the scope, surprised to see the petite brunette now confronting the thug who had pulled a knife on her. She didn't look too scared as she wrapped her hands with a thin strip of cloth. Thinking quickly, Ryoshi grabbed a preloaded magazine that sat on top of his desk, racked it into the rifle and cycled the bolt. He increased the magnification of his scope to 6x and waited for the opportune moment. It was about 35 yards to the target, no wind, ideal conditions for the shot. Hitting a man sized target at 300 feet was an easy task for him but hitting a head sized target 105 feet would take more finesse. He waited patiently, biding his time, trying to find an opening where he wouldn't hit the girl.

They were bobbing and weaving, constantly moving around, almost as if they were dancing (correction: almost as if _she _was dancing. She dodged gracefully, parrying the strikes every so often). He sat there, eyes behind his scope, simply in awe. Then...it happened...The boy brandishing the knife went for a lunge while the girl closed the distance, allowing for a clear headshot. Ryoshi pulled the trigger and sent an 6mm bb hurling at the target at an upwards of 700 fps. The bb hit the delinquent's head, right bellow the left eye which halted his charge and stunned him for a fraction of a second. However it was just enough time for the girl to throw a left hook the thug's jaw, following with a spinning elbow and finishing with a knee, effectively disarming and incapacitating him. Ryoshi quickly grabbed his tactical vest out of a locked case under his bead and put it on over his t-shirt; after accounting for his spare magazines and speed loaders, he placed his non-blowback, CO2 powered M1911 into his leg holster and ran out the door, downstairs, and into the streets towards the girl.

"Where is it?" Ryoko said angrily as she kicked the man who just tried to stab her, in the stomach.

"Where's what?!" Spluttered the thug on the ground.

"The bike you stole from that first year! It was blue, vintage road bike with a very distinct identification plate. I'm pretty sure I saw you riding yesterday by the docks!" Replied Ryoko, emphasizing her distaste with another kick to the solarplexes.

"In an abandoned warehouse...on the west side of town!" Coughed out the poor bastard on the floor.

Meanwhile, Ryoshi hid in the shadows, listening to the whole exchange with much interest.

"Asshole..." Ryoko said as she turned on her heels and headed back towards the main street.

Ryoshi had narrowly avoided detection by diving behind a dumpster.

Ryoko quickly turned towards Ryoshi's general directions, "Hmm...Come out now and maybe, you won't get beat up _too bad..._"

Ryoshi clamped his hands over his mouth to muffle the chattering of his teeth. He closed his eyes, silently praying to whatever divine deities came to his mind, praying that this strikingly beautiful yet deathly terrifying girl won't think to look behind a greasy dumpster.

After what seemed like decades, Ryoko decided it wasn't worth her time to pursue phantom noises and darted off westward. Naturally, Ryoshi's curiosity could not allow him fall back to the safety of his apartment, so he tailed her from a distance.

After a 10 minute jog at a safe distance, Ryoshi hunkered down behind a hill 50 yards from the warehouse. For good measure, he put on his tinted shooting glasses, balaclava, and hat. He had to make sure he wasn't recognized afterwords. He propped his elbow on the hill and steadied his rifle. Ryoko, approached the front entrance which closed immediately after she entered.

"Oh dear...oh...dear...ohdearohdear..." Ryoshi said, anxiety slowly settling in.

He slung his rifle across his back and darted towards the back of the ware house. He climbed a stack of tractor tires to an open window and lightly stepped onto a catwalk, hand hovering over his sidearm all the while.

_I should have brought the shotgun for this..._

That he should. Close quarters is no place for a bolt action rifle.

Ryoshi pulled out his pistol and pulled the hammer back to tighten the trigger pull. He took aim at guy up in the catwalk and sent a volley of 3 bb's towards him, all hitting on the right cheek, which was enough to send him off the edge into a 12 foot fall down into the fray bellow (luckily he had a few of his accomplices to break his fall). The others on the catwalk noticed their friend fall and frantically darted towards the center walk. Luckily, the area above the fray was pitch black allowing Ryoshi to maneuver undisturbed. He struck one on the back of the head with the butt of his pistol and tossed him aside, following through with a running tackle which sent the second one hurling towards the ground. The third one proved to be more difficult as he caught on to what was happening. He flicked open his knife and charged at Ryoshi, who disarmed the thug with a strike from the stock of his rifle, he then followed with a forward strike smashing the butt of his rifle against assailant's nose.

Ryoko was handling herself very well, per usual. So well in fact that she was too busy pounding away at baddie brandishing a shinai to notice one creeping up behind her with a lead pipe. Luckily for her Ryoshi flipped the safety off his rifle and took the shot, hitting him on top of the head, creating a distinct muffled thud on contact (like rain on a canvas). Ryoko's head quickly turned towards Ryoshi's position up in the catwalk. She saw a faint glint in the shadows but did not act upon it...at least not yet, there were more people charging straight towards her.

_She saw my scope glint...that's what I get for forgetting my killflash..._

Ryoshi kept up with his suppressive fire, taking down Ryoko's assailant's on by one. He was having fun, he had to admit, so much fun that he didn't notice the small girl in a very dark corner of the catwalks, videotaping him with a night vision camera.

Eventually, someone turned the spout of endless thugs off and now Ryoko stood in the middle of an abandoned warehouse with the bodies of badly beaten, knocked out, and embarrassed to death delinquents.

"I swear, they get bolder every week," Ryoko huffed, patting off the dust from her gloves and shoulders.

"Don't relax just yet, Ryoko. We have some company in the rafters," Ring said, appearing at Ryoko's side.

"Alright asshole! I know you're up there!" Ryoko yelled to the pitch black ceiling.

Startled by Ryoko's yelling, Ryoshi fell off kilter and fell backwards, failing to see that the guard rail had fell off the walkway. He landed in the middle of the room, face down in the dirt in front of Ryoko.

"Okay, you're going to drop your weapons then you're gonna tell me who you are and what you were doing," Ryoko said forcefully, raising her fists expecting a fight. Ryoshi stood up shakily, his eyes still covered by his tinted shooting glasses, hiding his wide watery eyes and giving him the thousand yard stare look of a true contractor.

Ryoshi was paralyzed with anxiety, fear, and (at the time he didn't know it) unequivocal love.

"Cat got your toungue? WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING!?" Ryoko yelled.

"Take it easy Ryoko, I think your scaring him," Ringo said.

"Like hell I am!"

Ryoko goes in for a haymaker hook, but Ryoshi, acting on reflexes, uses his rifle to block and tries to go for a thrusting riposte using the barrel of his gun. It misses by fractions of an inch allowing Ryoko to regain her bearings and set back up in her boxer's stance.

If Ryoko wasn't so angry, she might have commended the speed and form of Ryoshi's strikes but at the moment she was inexplicably _livid_.

"That's it punk! You're dead!" Ryoko goes in for another haymaker with a running start.

Ryoshi, too afraid for his life to panic, dodged the blow and used his rifle to block the second punch of the combo. Ryoko went in for the third blow, her gloved fist colliding with he side of Ryoshi's rifle, an audible crack rang inside the mechanism of the gun.

Ryoshi did the smart thing and slung his rifle across his back, silently panicking as he thought about the damage done to his beloved rifle.

"Try shooting at me now, you prick!" Ryoko smirked, feeling slightly too pleased with herself.

"I...I wa...wasn't trying t-t-too..." Ryoshi trails off in barely coherent Japanese.

"Liar!" Ryoko goes in for another barrage but is caught by surprise when Ryoshi closes the gap instead of dodging.

Ryoshi blocks the hook, grabs Ryoko's arm and jams his elbow in the crook of her neck. This gives Ryoshi enough leverage to start pushing Ryoko back with a running pace. Backpedaling just to stay standing, Ryoko in a desperation performs a takedown on Ryoshi, both of them falling to the ground in the process. Ryoshi catches himself with his hands and springs back up into a running pace, leaving Ryoko on the ground. A little too late in realizing that Ryoshi was trying to run away, Ryoko make's a break for it, following Ryoshi out the door.

It wasn't long before Ryoko caught up to Ryoshi. Seething with rage and frustration, Ryoko made a desperate swipe for Ryoshi's rifle which was still slung across his back. She grabs a hold of it and forcefully tugs on it, expecting to pull Ryoshi into a choke. Unfortunately, Ryoshi pulls a spin, slipping away from Ryoko's grasp but in the process, tearing off the U.S. Army Rangers patch off of his vest. Ryoshi gains a sizable lead while Ryoko loses hope of catching this mystery man.

"Shit!" Ryoko yelled angrily. She examines the patch, noticing the English lettering.

"We should take it to the President. He knows how to read English," Ringo said, appearing by Ryoko's side once again.

Ryoko didn't respond.

"Hey, you okay?" Ringo asks, a little concerned.

"He got away..." Ryoko mumbled angrily.

"Ahhhh...the one that got away..." Ringo said dreamily, "How romantic!"

"This isn't funny, Ringo!" Ryoko huffed, "C'mon, let's go home..."

Ryoshi ran as fast as he can without stopping, not caring about his cramping legs and the stitch in his side. He raced upstairs to his apartment and slammed the door behind him, taking extra care to lock both the door handle and the deadbolt.

_That was SO close...I'm never doing that again..._

Or so our little contractor thought, because the next day would be very interesting indeed...

Ryoshi collapsed face down on his bed, too lazy to remove his vest.

Meanwhile, Ryoko and Ringo approached the entrance to the Otogi Bank and traversed it's depths to the secret basement.

"What are you Ladies doing here? It's late," Alice said, not looking up from her laptop.

"We need to see the president!" Ryoko and Ringo yelled in unison.

"P-Pray tell, what's so urgent?" Alice said, a bit off kilter after having her eardrums assaulted.

"He's in his study, but he's probably busy!" Alice called after the pair, no running towards the back door to the President's study.

Lo and behold, the Prsident sat behind his desk, seated upon an ornate, Victorian leather chair, stacking a house of cards.

"Mr. President, we have a situation!" Ringo said, holding the patch in front of the President's face, knocking over the house of cards.

"Let's see what we have here," The President said, sighing at the lost progress.

"Ryoko ripped it off some guy who was tailing us, things kinda got a bit hairy..." Ringo trailed off.

"_U.S. Army Rangers...Lead the way..._" Liszt read out, examining the patch.

"In Japanese! What does it mean in Japanese!" Ryoko, who was now seated on the couch, anxiously asked.

"It's the sigil for the United States Army Rangers...peculiar...very peculiar..." Liszt contemplated the possible explanations.

"Could it have been anybody from Onigashima?" Ringo asked.

"Highly unlikely, not unless they're outsourcing to the JROTC, which I highly doubt. All of the recruits are exceptional men and women who would never associate themselves with those delinquents nor would they abandon their duties and use their training to become private contractors." The President rubbed his temples in thought.

"Well some bastard decked out in military gear tailed me and attacked me, and seeing as how they got away, they had some goddamn training!" Ryoko seethed.

"We'll look into this. Did you recover the bike?" The President said as he placed the patch in his desk drawer.

"It was probably another ruse to lure me out," Ryoko said, standing up to leave.

"I see...well, they're getting feistierby the day..." Alice appeared in the door way.

"Alice, can you search for any student with any military affiliations, whatsoever?"

"I've already started compiling a list," Said Alice, who was now sitting on the couch in Ryoko's vacant spot, typing away on her laptop.

"Oh and Mr. President! You might want to take a look at this," Ringo handed over the video camera to the President.

"Were you able to see his face?"

"He wore a balaclava," Ringo said.

"Well, whoever this is, he's a real professional!" Liszt, took out the memory card and plugged it into his own computer.

"Tch! It's not like he took out a room full of guys, he was hiding in the shadows missing his shots!" Ryoko scoffed.

"Thanks for your Mr. President!" Ringo said, dragging a miffed looking Ryoko out of the room.

Liszt summoned Majolica from her lab and started analyzing the video as soon as the two girls left.

"Standard MOLLE plate carrier, tinted shooting glasses, balaclava, and a camouflage boonie hat. He was prepared, What do you think, Alice?"

"Definitely some military training, look how he shoots and how he carries himself in close quarters. He knows his weapon very well, he can rapidly reload without fumbling for his magazines, and in this instance he has at least a ninety-eight percent shot accuracy. He can be a real threat..."

"His weapons...built of a standard platform, heavily upgraded, incredibly accurate...he's a technical genius..." Majolica inputted, jaw slightly ajar.

"Well I'm glad to see he helped Ryoko this time around but we don;t know whose side he's on, he can be a very dangerous adversary..." Liszt trailed off, closing his laptop.

Meanwhile, back in in Ryoko's and Ringo's apartment.

"That bastard is gonna get what's coming to him..." Ryoko trailed off before dozing off.

Ringo laughed silently to herself, enjoying the rare sight of her Okami-san so flustered and embarrassed.

"Goodnight Ryoko, sweet dreams," Ringo said, turning off the light and crawling into the top bunk.

At this moment in time, Ryoshi was seated at his desk, disassembling his rifle. Not entirely surprised, Ryoshi saw that his adjustable trigger, sears, and hop-up assembly were bent, dented, and snapped (respectively). Sighing, Ryoshi removed the broken parts and locked his rifle along with his tactical vest in a rifle box beneath his bed. Saddened, frustrated, and excited Ryoshi felt little need for sleep and instead sat at his desk, images of the tall brunette playing back in his mind.

_She was really cute..._

_I wonder who she is..._

Just the thought of confronting his impromptu crush sent a wave of anxiety crashing over him. Ryoshi rubbed his eyes and tried to control his hyperventilating. Needless to say, Ryoshi didn't get too much sleep that night.


End file.
